Podcasts & Blog

A Response to Some Things Said About President Trump

I submit here in this blog my thoughts on the unfair accusation of the president’s alleged anti-semitism, a word on the legal status of the Dreamers, and a final comment on an article on the New York Times, dated May 11, 2018. The left ideological spectrum has stated recently and frequently over the years that the president is anti-semitic. For example, in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper, Queens Courier, there is a letter on page 37 dated May 2, 2018, in which the president is stated to be anti semitic and racist. Further in the New York Times of August 4, 2017, there is a story that rabbi groups refused to be present for the holiday season with the president. The article essentially stated that the Jewish leaders alleged anti-semitism on his part in his failure to condemn white supremacists demonstrators in Virginia. The charge that the president is anti-semitic is frankly not true and verges on the outrageous on a number of bases.

First, a large part of the president’s family is Jewish. Second, the president is an extremely strong supporter of Israel and has risked international condemnation and possible conflict, in moving the embassy of the United States to Jerusalem. More to the point, there have been a number of anti-semitic attacks on the part of a small minority of Jihadists within the Muslim cultural and religious community. Let me state very strongly that this violence is on the part of a small minority within this community and the overall majority are peaceful, hard-working family persons. I, myself, as a Christian abhor any discrimination or hate directed to any group or society, whether Muslim or Christian. But these minority violent attacks occurred in Paris some time ago, and more recently, there was an attack involving an elderly Jewish woman in France, by a jihadist, in which she was burned and stabbed to death. There is a movement of a large number of Jewish people from France to Israel because of these conditions. Thus, the president’s travel ban which is not discriminatory but a pragmatic response to this violence on the part of a small minority – protects the Jewish community in the United States from possible violence and assault.

For a Jewish person to say he is anti-semitic is frankly absurd. His travel ban represents the salvation of the Jewish community in the United Stated and protection from possible violence from this small minority. The president seeks to preserve the lives of the Jewish community and people in the United States. I can only say that President Trump, far from being anti-semitic, is extremely concerned for the the Jewish community and their preservation. Finally, I would note that the state of Israel has been under continual attack by its neighbors. The president seeks to preserve Jewish lives and the accusation of being anti-semitic is frankly without foundation, without truth, and a basic outrage that this letter seeks to correct.

I would now like to talk about the so-called Dreamers. The left has continually implied and
stated that the so­-called Dreamers deserve some sort of compassion and help. The parents came
here illegally and the children continued in that status. In essence, the entire family has
manipulated our educational, vocational, and medical system for their own benefit. To see the
dreamers as worthy of compassion and help is frankly absurd. Help should be given to people
who abide by the laws in the United States. The US should not be a country that excuses and
allows illegal action on the part of parent and child with the result that legal residents are edged
out of jobs, medical care and educational opportunities. The question that arises ­ does this
family whose parents made no effort to obtain legal status and whose children also made no
effort to obtain legal status deserve particular consideration? In fact, both parents and children
have no rights as being illegally here. And the best that can be said of them is that they have
successfully manipulated the legal system to their advantage, and to the disadvantage of legal
residents who desperately need those educational and vocational opportunities. I would ask why
the dreamers and their parents did not for all these years, correct their illegal status? Let me add
that I have full compassion and understanding for these dreamers but I also say that we live in a
country with laws and rules that all of us must abide by. The United States is not a private
charity and is not akin to the salvation army but is a state which must operate within the laws and
also operate to the positive benefits of its legal citizens.

Finally, I would like to talk about the frequent charge of the left that the president is racist. As an
example of this sort of ideological rhetoric, there was an article in the New York Times of May
11, 2018 concerning the reaction of Korean national Americans on the president’s immigration
position. The article admits that the president did bring to this country from North Korea three
people who were detained in that country. The article goes on to state that the writer Ms. Medina
objects to the president’s policy on immigration. I do not know what the writer means by his
policies on immigration except I do know he has a policy of possibly deporting immigrants
illegally here with criminal records. She goes on to state that in her area, 20% of the Korean
immigrants she terms unauthorized which really means illegal. I find Ms. Medina’s argument
about the president extremely weak. She states that immigrants from South Korea make up the
fifth largest share of DACA recipients. The number of undocumented immigrants has increased
by more than 700% in the last thirty years. How she could possibly argue that a large group of
people illegally here and who may be subject to action on the part of the administration should
result in the condemnation of the president and his policies on immigration. ­ The convenient use
of the terms for persons illegally here of “unauthorized” and “undocumented” covers the truth. It
does not convince me that the president’s policies on illegal immigrants make him some sort of a
culprit.